New loggings

 As the internet wasn't working at home last night and thus TV viewing was impossible, I turned on the radio and logged a couple of stations. As usual there were Chinese stations all over the bands, but there were some pretty good signals coming out of AIR. Unfortunately I had verified all the frequencies.

But then I stumbled across VoA on 15620 kHz coming out of Pinheira, Sao Tome in Somali at 1035 UTC. The signal wasn't too bad - probably 35343. Africans are not easy to hear during daylight hours in Malaysia, so I am quite pleased with it.

 The second logging was much easier - RFA via Tinian Is in the Northern Marianas on 15195 at 1104. The broadcast was in Laotian and the quality was 55555.

DXing Tales

This is an exercise in self-indulgence. 

I have been privileged in my DXing life to get to know and DX with most of New Zealand's top DXers. Being unmarried until my early 50s, I had a lot of time to indulge my hobbies. Once I returned to New Zealand I made up for lost time and DXed a lot in the company of others. I was trying to think of something that happened in a DXpedition recently and had trouble recalling what it was. Therefore, I thought I would write down what I could remember and keep it for my own sake. If you find it vaguely interesting then that is a bonus.

Much of my knowledge and success in the DXing game came from the instruction I received from Raymond Crawford.

Ray was a stalwart of the Southland Branch of the New Zealand Radio DX League – he was also a patient teacher and is still a very good friend.

I acquired a Barlow Wadley XCR30 from Bryan Clark. This was a notoriously difficult beast to drive – you needed soft hands and a good set of ears. Ray came up to my place in Darfield in my early teaching days when I lived in a school owned house. I had a random length of wire stuck out the living room window. I couldn't hear a lot, but with Ray’s experience of the Barlow Wadley, a set of good ears and a little patience he conjured things up out the ether that I hadn’t heard before. I remember we logged Zimbabwe on two tropical band frequencies, when that country was very young and was known as Zimbabwe-Rhodesia.

For a couple of years in the early 80s I used to finish school at the start of the holidays at 3.15pm, get in my Morris 1100 and drive the 8 hours or so to Invercargill to stay at Ray’s. I always had a warm welcome from the Crawford clan and still do to this very day.

One particularly wet and windy August evening we went out to Tiwai to do some DXing. The original road in was pretty rough and we had to go through what resembled a bomb crater. Due to the heavy rain it was full of water. I pushed the car at it and through we went. How we ever got out the other side I will never know. I must have had the car waterproofed! Nobody in his right mind would have bothered to go to Tiwai, but for me this was a dream come true. We set up and started listening. There was nothing but noise from one end of the band to the other. Except at the top of an hour on 1470 a signal came up and announced ‘Esta es Radio Centinela de Pereira….’ It gave a few more details and played a bit of music. It must have lasted about three minutes and then disappeared back into the murk. It was the only thing we heard that evening. We both wrote to the station but only I got it back. A 2kw Colombian was a very exciting prospect. I thought that Best of The Year would be mine – only to be thwarted by Steven Greenyer – another good friend, who got a 1 kilowatt Colombian back.

In those days in the early 80s I never heard too much at Tiwai. I logged and verified Saudi Arabia in the mornings on 1512 and 1521, but I can’t remember much more than that.

I went to live in the UK in 1993 and came home in mid 2001 and then the DXpeditions started again. We went to Tiwai for Easter on an annual basis until I left in August 2007 for ten years abroad.

Ray was always a starter for Tiwai and were joined by Paul Aronsen, who ran the place, and Arthur DeMaine his main partner in crime. Others joined us too – Steven Greenyer usually came, Bryan Clark, David Norrie, Sutton Burtenshaw, David Headland, Frank Glenn, Paul Ormandy and even Tony Magon. Eric McIntosh usually dropped in as did Eddie Macaskill, who brought along his Marsh Special to show us.

One year we had a large gathering – it was supposed to be the farewell to Tiwai – we had several of those. I had to go to Oamaru for a wedding on the Saturday night. The conditions were pretty good and I left rather reluctantly, however it was my best friend getting married and I couldn’t say no. Sods law prevailed and conditions on the night I was away were magnificent with all sorts of things being heard including Panama on MW. The other DXers made sure I knew all about it when I returned! It is the only time I think I have ever been truly envious. All was well though as I logged and verified Radio María in Panama City the next year.

We would usually move from Tiwai to Waianakarua (pronounced Why a nack a roo a), or Ynak, on the way home from Tiwai. This is a tiny hamlet about 20 minutes south of Oamaru. The venue is a small ‘crib’ (shack – but not in the derogatory sense) in the middle of a farm paddock, owned by the Ormandy family. Paul Ormandy being totally committed to any hobby he pursues had set up aerials 1500m plus in length to all corners of the globe. As Paul’s interest in DX has diminished (with the growth in his interest in ham radio), so the antennas have decreased in size. It is a lovely venue – quiet, isolated, but extremely cold in the winter – seriously cold. The little coal fire struggles to warm the place and you wake up in the morning with a very blue nose!

We had some fantastic times at Ynak and we heard some amazing things. There was the evening when we had an opening to South America. It was basically northern Argentina and southern Uruguay. It was like shooting fish in a barrel – you didn’t know which station to log next. The next evening it was an opening to California with so many low powered stations to be heard. On another occasion it was a Florida opening and I managed to log and verify a 130w station, which sounded like a local.

I lived for almost 9 years in the south east of England during the 1990s-early 2000s. I was able to do a little DXing there, but conditions were not great due to high noise levels. I did build myself a loop aerial and set to work.

There are only a couple of things that remain in my memory. One was when Radio London celebrated an anniversary and broadcast on 1 watt of power from a vessel tied up in Frinton on Sea in Essex. It would be close to 150 kilometres away. In the middle of an afternoon I logged and verified it with quite a good signal. That is possibly my best MW verification.

On another occasion in the depths of winter I stayed up late and logged some North Americans. I got WTOP in Washington DC and WBBR in New York City. In addition I heard two Canadian stations on 930 kHz, both were in St John’s – one was in New Brunswick and the other in New Foundland – Saint John for the former and St John’s for the latter to be precise. I got one of them to verify and both the Yanks. It was quite an evening. Logging the two on 930 was difficult as they both ran ads at more or less the same time and which was which was confusing because of the similarity in names.

One year – it must have been about 2006, I went to a DXpedition in Kingaroy, about 3 hours north west of Brisbane. We stayed at John and Jean Bastable’s place and DXed out of his large shed. Steven and Jeanette Greenyer stayed in the caravan in the shed and probably had the most peace and quiet. It was an amazing weekend. We ran a very, very long length of wire basically northeast in the hope of hearing some Yanks. No chance – it was not working at all. Instead we tapped into John’s two 3 metre EWE antennae – one pointing northeast and the other southeast. We heard a few things on those. I decided, since we had a spare EWE floating around, that it might be a good idea to erect one pointing northwest.

This was duly done and the results were amazing. We tuned the EWEs properly so as to avoid back end interference and what followed was the best advertisement imaginable for the EWE. On 1386 using the SE EWE we heard Tarana in Auckland at very good levels after 7 am local time (9 am NZ time)! By switching to the NW EWE on the same frequency, there was Kenya. Ray Crawford and I got the veries back too. It was a wonderful weekend of hilarity and comradeship that was not easily forgotten.

Through all of this runs the camaraderie of DXers. I have been privileged to know and have DXed with some of New Zealand’s finest latter day DXers. I would count among them Ray Crawford, Steven Greenyer, Paul Ormandy, Sutton Burtenshaw, Paul Aronsen, Arthur DeMaine, Tony King and Bryan Clark. The thing about them is their willingness to share information and resources. Everybody supports everybody else and wishes each other well as we chase that elusive verification.

Bryan Clark is a special case in point. He now lives in Mangawhai about 100km north of Auckland. Bryan and Sandra own a home in the Tern Point community, right down on the water’s edge. He doesn’t have much soil, only sand, and 100 olive trees from which is produced the most wonderful olive oil. He also has an aerial farm with 3 EWE antennae – 4.5 metres high and about 15 metres long. With these he hears just about anything that can be heard in New Zealand. I have had the privilege of staying with Bryan and Sandy a couple of times and of DXing with him. WGIT 1660 in Puerto Rico was the best logging I have made in Mangawhai, and I got it back too. It hadn’t been heard for a while in New Zealand.

When last I was with him we heard and logged a few things and when I went home he emailed the necessary sound files to me. Bryan is a truly selfless DXer and his exploits on the bands are of the highest order. In FM DXing he is unsurpassed. With my experiences in Mangawhai, it was no surprise that I suggested to my wife that when we relocate to New Zealand in the middle of 2018 that we do so to Mangawhai. We have the land and now await the house being built on it. The Mangawhai Branch of the NZRDXL is born!

New veries have arrived

They say good things come in threes, for me they come in fours as today the good folk at Radio Free Asia have sent me four QSLs. They are for broadcasts in Mandarin and Tibetan on 7470 via Mongolia and 7520, 9370 and 9745 all via Kuwait.

A new verie

KVMI, 1270 in Tulare, California has veried after a follow up report. The email signer is blynch@momentumbroadcasting.com

This is a 5kw day and 1 kw night station. I heard them via the DX League's SDR receiver back in mid-November. They were playing back to back Christmas music with no announcements. I was very puzzled until a friend pointed out that in the NRC magazine the station had announced it would be doing this. That was enough. If it was 1kw night, it was a very good 1kw. The verie is very welcome.

A new verie has been received

I was delighted to receive a verification from KTNN 660 AM, the Voice of the Navajo Nation in Window Rock, Arizona. It was heard broadcasting under CFFR in Calgary, Alberta. The programme featured traditional Navajo hymns.

I logged it while staying with Bryan Clark in Mangawhai, New Zealand. The verie came from Marcia Peshlakai the station's Webmaster/ Promotions Coordinator (webmaster@ktnnonline.com). My report was submitted by using their online form with a link to the sound file in Google Drive being added.

New Veries To Arrive

I was very pleased to come home from New Zealand to find two veries waiting for me.

The first was for a Voice of Mongolia English language broadcast heard on 12035 kHz at 0915 UTC on October 3rd 2016. The signal was quite a good one. This was heard using my AOR 7030+

  

I am very pleased with the second QSL - it is AIR Gangtok on 4835 kHz heard on 7 February 2017 at 1939 UTC. This was just after ABC Northern Territory left the airwaves. The ABC signal tended to block out the AIR one. It still wasn't easy to hear. This one was heard on my WinRadio G313e.

  

 

A new QSL

KTRB 860, heard at Bryan Clark's place in Mangawhai has been verified by email. The email came from Mike Russell, Broadcast Technician (miker@salemsf.com). He is also the Broadcast Technician for KFAX and KDOW.

Stations logged this morning

Reception this morning came courtesy of the NZRDXL SDR in Paihia. Another is available to the general listening public at: http://kiwisdr.northlandradio.nz

Logged were VOA via Botswana on 6080 kHz at 0637 with a program of African music. This was non-stop until 0659. In SINPO reception was 55555 at the beginning and 35252 by the end. Local sunrise was at about this time and by just after 0700 the signal was by and large unreadable. 

The second station was Radio Oromiya in Ethiopia on 6030 kHz. It was a tremendous signal 5s all round. Reception was at 0706 when an id for Radio Oromiya was given. There followed a program of music with the occasional interruption by a man and a woman. 

Next came Radio Free Asia broadcasting in Chinese on 9745 kHz from Kuwait. The Chinese as usual were trying to drown it out with a program of very pleasant Chinese classical music. They were not very successful however, and the programme was perfectly audible. S3 I4 N4 P5 O3.

DXpedition Trail

This is what we heard during my DXpedition to Bryan Clark's. It was a good range and some nice SW catches. I will certainly be reporting some of them.

570	0632	USA, KLAC fair and clear, but with fading. Sports talk. Id given as AM 570 LA sports’ station. 11/4
640	0700	USA, KFI fair with IF. Mixed with a Latin. Progresso possibly. 10/4
660	0702	CANADA and USA – CFFR mixed with KTNN. Traffic info for Calgary and Indian chanting. 10/4
690	0715	USA, KHNR good with announcer talk. 10/4
710	0727	USA, KIRO – ESPN Seattle fair with id and lots of mentions of Seattle. 10/4
780	0733	USA, KKOH fair but mixed. Id given at 0733 as Red Eye Radio on Newstalk 780, KKPH. Rush Limbaugh weekdays at 9 am. 10/4
850	0740	USA, KOA with faming ads and id. Fair. 10/4
860	0855	USA, KTRB fair with some splash from locals and some fading. ID given just before the hour and then news and financial stories. 11/4
1090	0749	USA, KFNQ fair with Seattle Sports Talk. 10/4
1310	0754	USA, KMKY fair with Punjabi mx. (KMKY is R. Punjabi). 10/4
1430	0703	USA, KLO. Fair/ poor – a lot of fading 11/4
1540	0632	USA, KPMC fair with music – Bridge Over Troubled Waters. 9/4
1670	0815	USA, WMGE under KHPY but audible. At 0819 mentioned Fox Sports trending.
4055	0557	GUATEMALA, R Verdad. Poor but readable signal. Id given as R Verdad. Woman may have been speaking in German (sounded a little like it). C/down at 0602 with choir singing. Carrier off at 0607. 11/4
4885	0615	BRAZIL, R Clube do Para – Fair at best with vocals and announcements in PP. Also gave frequencies. 9/4
6015	0445	ZANZIBAR, Fair with lady talking in Swahili. Phone calls being taken. Grey line boost to sig and faded and disappeared by 0500. Id given as ZBC. 11/4
6025	0420	BOLIVIA, Red Patria Neuva. Fair/ poor with nx show. Id at 0431 as ‘Bolivia Informar’. 11/4
6090	2057	ETHIOPIA, R Amhara vg with mx and talk. 2059 Amhara Radio id given and c/ down and anthem. CRI carrier came on and sig audible beneath. 9/4
11825	0359	MADAGASCAR, World Voice Madagascar in EE with African Pathways. Very good signal. 11/4
17530	0410	MADAGASCAR, World Voice Madagascar – good in CC, but not as good as the signal on 11825. 11/4

A DXpedition

I have just spent three days with my good friend Bryan Clark in Mangawhai, DX Paradise, just over an hour north of Auckland in New Zealand. I have known Bryan for 40 years and he is New Zealand's top MW DXer. His home in Mangawhai is set against the backdrop of the estuary. This is only a couple of hundred metres away. He has three EWE antennae - each is approx 5m high and 15m long, pointing east, north east and south east. These are, unsurprisingly, very effective and when conditions are right, they are the equal of anything in New Zealand.

Unfortunately, conditions have not been great and reception hasn't been as good as hoped. Nonetheless, I still managed to hear things I cannot hear in Malaysia. To listen we used Bryan's WinRadio Excalibur SDR (software defined radio). This is a much improved version of my WinRadio SDR, which was quite an early model. I must say I am now sold on them and am working out how I am going to get one without breaking the bank! It is a vast improvement on my one.

Special thanks to Bryan and Sandra for their continuing friendship and hospitality. Maureen and I look forward to repaying it when we move to Mangawhai - hopefully in July of next year.

A DX trail will follow this posting.

A new verie 

Radio Tirana recently contacted me about their shortwave and mediumwave services closing. I took the opportunity to send them an old report from Christmas 2014, when staying in Vienna. They responded positively confirming I had heard a Greek language broadcast on 1458.

The contact was fortuitous, as I had given up on it - it just goes to show - never give up!

A new logging

With little time on my hands at present, until at least April, when I depart for Aotearoa New Zealand, I did manage to grab 30 minutes listneing the other evening at around 1350 UTC. I was delighted to pick up RRI Pro Satu Tanjung Pinang on 1341 kHz. The station came in well - probably the best of the Indonesians. There were also lots of id's.

In the Pacific Asia Log, Bruce Portzer has it as being supposedly off air, however, it is very much on air and Bruce has been sent the sound file to prove it. I am sure he will amend the PAL accordingly.

Now to decipher what was being said and to write a report - in Indonesian!

Two new veries in one day!

The first one is from Radio RB2 in Curitiba, Brazil on 9725. It was heard on 17th December 2016 via Peter Mott's SDR receiver in Northland, NZ.

The verie arrived (see below) accompanied by a rather nice sticker, which will appear in the DX Times shortly.

The second verie is from the FEBC in the Philippines heard broadcasting in Khmer in 19th January on a frequency of 7410 kHz. The verification came from Norita Estabillo (norie.estabillo@febc.ph). I have been encouraged to have a listen on 702 kHz (DZAS), which I might just do!

A verie has arrived!

I have received a verie from Radio Nacional da Amazônia in Brazil on 11780. It was for a report sent in December. It arrived by registered delivery!

A new logging

With the demise of the ABC Shortwave Services in the Northern Territory on 31 January, it has left AIR Gangtok in the clear on 4835.

Gangtok is the capital of the state of Sikkim, once an independent monarchy before being annexed by India in 1975. To be more accurate, the Indian government deposed the Sikkimese monarchy and a referendum held later the same year resulted in the population voting to join India.

My wife and I have a good friend who is a member of the Sikkimese Royal Family and her story doesn't quite tally with the official version, but ....

It is a tiny state high up in the Himalayas, bordering with Nepal, China and Bhutan. It is basically north of Darjeeling. The shortwave station is a difficult one to hear and conditions at present are not good. I had to listen for several nights before getting a signal that I could actually use to write a report.

A new verification

The Voice of Vietnam has replied to two reports. The first is for 9840 and 12020 heard on the 28th July. The second was for a MW broadcast on 1224 (although the card says 1240) heard on the 5th October.

In addition there was a lovely hand written note from one of the VoV workers and a calendar.

An Indonesian Response

From my home location the band is full of stations from Thailand, which don't verify. There are a few Indonesians audible, the best among them being Bukittingi on 1512 and Pelambang on 1287.

Getting a response from the Indonesians is also a challenge. I have tried Pelambang with no luck, I tried Medan on 801 with no luck, but I have had a partial response from Bukittingi. They have sent me an email seeking my home address so that they could send me a letter. Fingers crossed!

A new logging

FEBC on 7410 has been logged in Cambodian at 1030 UTC. It was a near perfect signal.  The last time I logged and verified them was in 1972. It was my 2nd Shortwave QSL.

Caveat Emptor

This means buyer beware.  I purchased a battery charger from the web. I thought I was getting a good deal as it was less than 100RM. However, my foolishness was soon exposed. Initially it didn't work, then it decided it would work. The third time of use saw it stop and when I touched it, it was very hot. I feared I may have cooked my battery, but no, only the charger. See photo below.

I have since purchased another battery charger from the net paying around 270RM. This one works superbly. 

I was off the airwaves for two weeks with a very flat battery. Lesson learned!

A verie has arrived

As mentioned in the post below this one, I logged Thunder AM, the AFN station on 1530 in Yongsan South Korea the other night. I had trouble finding an address and in the end I messaged the Facebook page.

A verification arrived today from George A. Smith, Chief Affiliate Relations/Public Affairs Officer/Broadcast Operations, American Forces Network (AFN) Broadcast Center, 23755 Z Street, Riverside, CA 92518. His email address is: george.a.smith32.civ@mail.mil